ShoalCreekVol
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2008
- Messages
- 2,657
- Likes
- 3,779
I mentioned this in another thread, but here is something to consider about decisions Mike Hamilton could've, and IMO I'd now say "should've", done when Kiffin walked in January 2010.
What Hamilton DID: Hire whoever will take the job at that point, even though it means that person would be walking away from their team the same way Kiffin just walked away from ours. Pay this person as if they are a top-notch coach so other coaches can't use that against us in recruiting, including giving him a mongo buyout of a ridiculous nature as if you just hired Nick Saban;
What Hamilton DIDN't DO: Name an interim coach from the current staff for the upcoming season, and tell everyone that you will be making a permanent hire later that season or at the end of it. Spend the season evaluating the interim coach's performance to consider him, and also searching for other candidates including ones who become hot commodities during the upcoming year. Make a good long term hire while essentially not expecting anything of that one season.
Both options have positives and negatives, and there are definitely trade-offs either way. But it seems quite clear to me that, in retrospect, we would've been better off to go the interim route and look long-term. I mean, once it got to the point where the best Hamilton could get is the La Tech coach with a losing record, he should've realized that an immediate permanent hire just wasn't in the cards.
Coaches who changes jobs after the 2010 season (IOW, the pool we would've been looking at had we used an interim and waited it out):
Hugh Freeze, Will Muschamp, Al Golden, Brady Hoke, Jim Harbaugh, Dana Holgorsen, James Franklin
Some of the schools that faced a similar situation that year in terms of changing coaches at inopportune times, and chose to go interim/long-term:
Ohio State, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Pitt
Hard to say that those schools (except maybe Pitt, not sure about that one b/c of the whole coach-beating-his-wife thing) aren't better off than us at this point. Ohio State used Luke Fickell for the year and then hired Urban Meyer, for goodness sake.
My point is not that one of those guys would now be our coach, it's that this would be the pool of available candidates that we would've been able to pursue had we waited it out and looked at the big picture. Bottom line is you're only going to get a coach as good as the pool you are choosing from.
I think one of the reasons Hamilton panicked and made the quick hire was to attempt to salvage what we believed was a program-changing recruiting class that Kiffin had been putting together.
Here's the source that I used: 2011 College Football Coaching Changes, College Football New Coaches
What Hamilton DID: Hire whoever will take the job at that point, even though it means that person would be walking away from their team the same way Kiffin just walked away from ours. Pay this person as if they are a top-notch coach so other coaches can't use that against us in recruiting, including giving him a mongo buyout of a ridiculous nature as if you just hired Nick Saban;
What Hamilton DIDN't DO: Name an interim coach from the current staff for the upcoming season, and tell everyone that you will be making a permanent hire later that season or at the end of it. Spend the season evaluating the interim coach's performance to consider him, and also searching for other candidates including ones who become hot commodities during the upcoming year. Make a good long term hire while essentially not expecting anything of that one season.
Both options have positives and negatives, and there are definitely trade-offs either way. But it seems quite clear to me that, in retrospect, we would've been better off to go the interim route and look long-term. I mean, once it got to the point where the best Hamilton could get is the La Tech coach with a losing record, he should've realized that an immediate permanent hire just wasn't in the cards.
Coaches who changes jobs after the 2010 season (IOW, the pool we would've been looking at had we used an interim and waited it out):
Hugh Freeze, Will Muschamp, Al Golden, Brady Hoke, Jim Harbaugh, Dana Holgorsen, James Franklin
Some of the schools that faced a similar situation that year in terms of changing coaches at inopportune times, and chose to go interim/long-term:
Ohio State, North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Pitt
Hard to say that those schools (except maybe Pitt, not sure about that one b/c of the whole coach-beating-his-wife thing) aren't better off than us at this point. Ohio State used Luke Fickell for the year and then hired Urban Meyer, for goodness sake.
My point is not that one of those guys would now be our coach, it's that this would be the pool of available candidates that we would've been able to pursue had we waited it out and looked at the big picture. Bottom line is you're only going to get a coach as good as the pool you are choosing from.
I think one of the reasons Hamilton panicked and made the quick hire was to attempt to salvage what we believed was a program-changing recruiting class that Kiffin had been putting together.
Here's the source that I used: 2011 College Football Coaching Changes, College Football New Coaches
